Try Twitter

By Alyson Stanfield on 07.06.09

Everyone’s tweeting these days. In fact, you’re probably sick and tired of hearing about Twitter. Twitter this, tweet that. But maybe, if you aren’t already using Twitter, you could try it to see why it’s all the rage.

The Good News
Twitter, a microblogging platform in real time, is free and fairly intuitive. Unlike Facebook, the Twitter interface gives you just two basic options: reading other tweets or composing your own. That’s it.

More good news: Twitter is about making friends and building relationships. It’s about making new contacts, giving, and receiving. This is the highest form of marketing there is because 1) it’s more comfortable than “selling” for most people and 2) it works! We buy things (including art) from people we know, like, and trust.

It’s also easy to build a following fairly quickly on Twitter.

The Bad News
There’s not too much of a downside to Twitter unless you have zero self-control. You could get sucked in to reading pages and pages of Twitter updates. But don’t! Read what’s on your screen, post an update or two of your own, and leave. You could also get sidetracked by all of the fancy applications available to Twitter users. Don’t do that either–at least not in the beginning. Focus on learning the ropes.

FAIR WARNING: You are not going to “get” Twitter right away. Reread that sentence and promise never to email me with a complaint about not “getting” Twitter. Until you have been using it consistently (consistently!) for two or three months, you might be flummoxed and have every reason to be. Twitter might very well be too simple. Don’t look for it to be more complicated than it is or to reveal a deeper meaning. It will take time to understand what Twitter is all about and to learn how to use it effectively to build a following.

My experience might give you cause for hope. I have been a member of Twitter for two years, and my account sat mostly neglected for the first year. I couldn’t see or understand the possibilities and no one I knew was using Twitter or had even heard of it. As you know, Twitter exploded last year and I rejoined the fun. Now, people find me on Twitter that have no idea I write this newsletter, published a book, or teach online classes. Twitter is now a key part of my marketing strategy.

THINK ABOUT THIS—~> Twitter will take up as much of your time as you allow.

DO THIS————~> Try Twitter. Try it consistently for two or three months. The longer you are on Twitter, the more you will understand the benefits and the more people you will meet. It could become a valuable aspect of cultivating collectors for your art.